Kidpower Vancouver was established in 2004 by Emergency Physician Dave Harrison. Kidpower Vancouver provides services to people of all ages and abilities in the Vancouver area. We offer 4-hour public workshops for children, teens, and adults about once per month. Our clients also include private and public schools, hospitals, corporations, and groups of women working in the sex trade industry in downtown Vancouver.

Dave serves the international organization as a Senior Program Leader and a member of the Training Team for teaching new instructors. He has the primary responsibility for training new Full Force Instructors.

Becoming involved in Kidpower has been a truly life changing experience. The people in the organization are exceptional individuals working with sensitivity, dedication, professionalism and passion. The privilege of teaching safety and self-defense skills, especially to kids, is as rewarding as any work I have done in over 30 years as a physician.

At a workshop for adults with brain injuries, there was a woman in a wheel chair who was severely limited in her capability, just able to hold up her hand as a stop sign. At a later time in the workshop, the staff came over to me, and said I had to come see this. They took me over to the woman. She was saying ‘No’ so I said, ‘That is good! She is saying, ‘No!’.

The staff said, ‘You don’t understand. She has never talked before in all the years she has been coming to our day program.’

They did not think she was capable of speech. Kidpower had brought out her voice!